CBD is used to treat a myriad of things today, from fighting arthritis inflammation and pain to helping cancer patients and even people with anxiety or depression disorders. With that said, there’s still plenty of ongoing research to help doctors fully understand how and when CBD truly helps their patients.
But one potential use you may not have thought is being studied in the growing field of CBD research is sex. That’s right, some researchers are setting out to answer a simple question: can CBD improve your sex life?
According to a recent survey of 1,000 people published by Remedy Review, the answer is yes. 68% of people in that study said CBD does, in fact, improve sex. The review noted that one particular part of their study was simply that most people don’t even think to use CBD for enhancing their sex lives, making it a topic with a fairly small sample size even in the community of people who use and are prescribed CBD. So of the 1,000 people surveyed, not even all of them had used CBD as a sexual enhancement. 68% of people said it improved their sexual experience and others said it helped them relax or improved their overall mood, which makes sense given CBD’s proven use in relaxing its users.
They also found that 96% of the people surveyed who hadn’t thought to use CBD for sexual purposes before weren’t even aware of the potential benefits, proving there’s still a lot of information needed in order to educate people about Cannabidiol.
So, how does CBD potentially apply to your sex life? First, the survey implied a correlation between an improved mood through CBD use which they hypothesized had an increase in sexual desire as well. “CBD can lessen feelings of performance anxiety and other insecurities, and lubrication products that include CBD provide the added sensation that can make it easier to focus on your body during sex,” the Review wrote.
“Daily life stress, as well as anxiety related to performance, can kill your sex drive and create challenges in the bedroom,” says intimacy coach Xanet Pailet. “For women, orgasm happens at the intersection of high arousal and high relaxation, so the more relaxed you are, the easier it will be to experience pleasure.”
As for the method of consumption that was found to have the most positive impact amongst those surveyed, it was found that edibles like CBD gummies were the preferred method because of their ease of use, while lubricants and topical treatments were less popular amongst survey subjects. They Review pointed out that those lubricants and topical treatments, however, could be more effective in that they offer isolated stimulation when applied. Vaping was the second most popular method of consumption in the survey, suggesting the most straightforward application is likely going to be the most popular.
“I promote couples try anything they mutually agree upon that they want to experiment with. If they want to give [CBD] a try I don’t see any reason why not, but I would not promote it as a magic bullet,” says sexual psychologist Dr. Mintz.